Two High Stakes Players Scammed For $20 k Total Loss

Two High Stakes Players Scammed For $20 k Total Loss

It all started when one of the victims, the online PLO high stakes player Grazvydas, was on a Skype group with other poker players looking for someone to trade Stars/ACR (Americas Cardroom) funds for Natural8, as reported by Grazvydas himself on the Two Plus Two poker forum. Player James Romero was also in the same group looking for a trade and accepting bitcoin. Also in the same group was the scammer, who created fake accounts and contacted both players, cleverly conducting the negotiation and convincing Grazvydas that he was talking to James Romero and vice-versa. For some reason, neither of the pro players carried out basic verification checks.

Long story short, the scammer made Grazvydas send $20 k in ACR to Romero's real account, which he received as he was supposed to, and then made Romero send $20 k in BTC, supposedly for Grazvydas, but the scammer gave his own address, receiving the BTC in place of Grazvydas.

After getting tired of waiting and never receiving the BTC he was supposed to, Grazvydas eventually talked to the people on the Skype group figured out he had been scammed and what happened. However, according to him, he was considered the one to blame for the liability. Also, so far, he was the only one at loss.

He then took it to the Two Plus Two poker forums and James Romero answered basically saying he was not responsible and does not even have time to keep responding to that. "I have 5 different full-time projects I am working on now. I trade high stakes, produce coaching content, hold private coaching sessions, run a stable (22 horses by myself), hold a position at corporate startup that just went public, and play highstakes poker" said Romero.

However, Grazvydas persisted, and many members of the community in the forums and on Twitter scolded Romero for his attitude. He then finally agreed to split the loss and send $10 k in BTC back to Grazvydas. That was not enough for him, as he still demanded an apology from James Romero: "Seems like James got convinced that sending me back is +ev at this point. It's not all about the money. I didn't like how I got treated as well. I would like James to make a public apology 'I will try to be more responsible when I am a recognized 'trustworthy trader' and will try to do my due diligence as sending second, as well as if something like this happens again, I will try to communicate in a respectful and fair manner."

And that will probably be the end of the story, since an apology seems very unlikely at this point.